Gold Piece On Ebay, Why Would They Hide The Serial Number?

I looked at several other $20 gold auctions and the serial numbers are also obliterated. Send an inquiry to the seller regarding this. Unlike APMEX et al these auctions are for particular coins, so it's odd that you would not be receiving the coin pictured. The "no returns" policy and neutral/negative feedback comments are other warnings. The seller does not make any specific warranty that the coins are genuine...just that you will receive a coin...seems like a lot of money to risk on blind faith...

As Pertinax stated and as evidenced by Reading the description you probably don't get the coin shown. There are plenty of sellers who sell single coins who show you exactly the coin you will receive, so I'd never gamble on an unseen coin, especially one this high priced.

Probably a stock photo per sey.

Banner clearly states: 1896-S $20 Liberty PCGS MS63. Even though there is no return policy, you would have a case if you didn't get exactly what the listing said.

All that said: I'd probably stay away, just don't like things obviously hid in listings.

It used to be commo practice for some people to get Registry bragging rights for themselves by "stealing" serial numbers for coins. especially very high grade ones, and putting them into their own Regisrty. These "phantom coins" would then boost them to a high standing in the Registry competition.

This would cause buyers headaches when they would try to put them ito their own Registry listings. They couldn't do it because the coin was already in someone elses.

There is no such thing as a "no return" policy on ebay, just the same as there is no such thing as "buyer responsible for insurance." (If the item never arrives or arrives damaged, it's always 100% seller responsibility. Insurance protects the seller, not the buyer.)

If you file a SNAD (Significantly Not As Described) dispute with Paypal and ebay, you will be refunded. You are then asked to return the item to the seller.

However, whether you return it or not, you are still refunded.

Buyers have used this to scam sellers in the past by filing fake SNADs and returning literal garbage, scoring both the item + a refund.

As long as you follow the policies, and pay with Paypal, you have very good protection against scam sellers; however, if you don't follow the process (timely filing of an INR or SNAD) you may be in trouble.

Incidentally, this applies no matter what the seller states in his listing. They can say "no returns" all they want, but the return policy is set by Paypal and by ebay, not by the seller.

(FYI: Always use a CREDIT CARD as your Paypal funding source. In the event that Paypal does not refund you, you can file fraud with your credit card company, who will reverse the charges.)

As to the Registry, currently, if you attempt to add a serial number that is already "owned", it will pop up a window stating that the SN is already part of a collection and give you the offer to e-mail the collection owner to mark the coin as "sold" allowing you to add it to your set(s.)

Finally, ebay sellers are required to list the certification # in the listing when selling PCGS, ANACS or NGC slabbed coins. Failure to do so is a violation of the Listing Policy and may result in seller strikes leading up to a NARU ban hammer. Any ebay seller who is not listing the slab certification # and/or using stock photos on rare coins is one to be avoided at all costs. I'll make an exception for APMEX but at least you know up front you're getting a random slabbed coin in the specified grade, not a PARTICULAR coin.

My guess would be either 1) this particular seller is using fake slabs or 2) this particular seller has a bunch of problematic (overgraded, low EA or ugly) slabbed coins that they want to get rid of but that would never sell as-is, so they're using stock photos to sell the uglies.

And if the person who has it in their registry doesn't respond, you can prove to NGC that you do have possession of the coin and they will remove it from the other collection themselves. It is always possible to get your coin into your Registry, but the delay can be an annoyance.

Some dealers used to put their rare and high grade coins into a "phantom" registry just to keep people from stealing the numbers and putting them in a fake Registry collection. When they sold a coin the would remove it from the Phantom registry. ometimes they would forget to do so.